Preparation of nitrogen-doped biomass-derived carbon nanofibers/graphene aerogel as a binder-free electrode for high performance supercapacitors

Carbon materials derived from various biomasses have aroused forceful interest from scientific community based on their abundant resource, low cost, environment friendly and easy fabrication. Herein, the method has been developed to prepare nitrogen-doped biomass-derived carbon nanofibers/graphene aerogel (NCGA) as the binder-free electrode for supercapacitors. Ethylenediamine (EDA) is select as nitrogen source for its high nitrogen content and strong interaction with graphene oxide (GO) and cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) via hydrothermal self-assembly method to form hybrid hydrogel, and finally converts to NCGA by freeze-drying and carbonization. After carbonization the insulated CNFs converted to high conductivity carbon nanofibers. The NCGA electrode exhibits a high specific capacitance of 289 F g(-1) at 5 mV s(-1) and high stability of 90.5% capacitance retention ratio after 5000 cycles at 3 Ag-1. This novel biomass electrode could be potential candidate for high performance supercapacitors. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.